The application relates to a label for placing on a syringe body, and to a syringe body provided with this label.
In medicine and other fields, active substances, for example medications, are administered with the aid of a syringe, the syringe having a syringe body (mostly of plastic or glass) and a stopper or plunger movable therein. At its front end, the syringe can be connected or is already connected to a syringe needle. The syringe body and syringe needle are often manufactured in one piece, for example in the form of a syringe needle let into a syringe body made of glass.
In order to reduce the risk of injury when handling the syringe and when transporting it, the syringe needle is covered by a cap, which is fitted onto the syringe needle. The cap is pressed in the axial direction against the holder of the syringe needle.
This is done mechanically during the production and packaging of the syringe. However, after the syringe has been used, there is a risk of injury when the cap is pressed back onto the needle or onto the surrounding front end of the syringe body.
In the field of medicine, for example, it is therefore customary to provide syringes additionally with a needle-receiving means, which is mounted laterally on the syringe body, next to the holder of the syringe needle. Such a needle-receiving means can be pressed laterally against the syringe needle, and the syringe needle is admitted lengthwise into a corresponding recess or depression of the needle-receiving means. After use of a syringe, in particular of a syringe for medication, the risk of injury posed by the exposed syringe needle can be reduced in this way, specifically without the original cap having to be fitted back in place for this purpose.
Needle-receiving means of the type described here are known from U.S. Pat. No. 3,658,061 and from US 2007/0260191 A1.
From WO 2006/105807, it is known that a needle-receiving means of this kind, for subsequent protection of the syringe needle, can be designed in the form of a label. The label is produced using foils, with a first foil portion being able to be wound around the syringe body. The needle-receiving means, which can be pressed on against the syringe needle, is connected pivotably to the first foil portion with the aid of a transition area. While the first foil portion of the label surrounds the syringe body and is affixed to the outer wall of the syringe body, the transition area and at least the needle-receiving means for securing the syringe needle protrude in a first axial direction beyond the shoulder of the syringe body. After the liquid in the syringe, for example the medication solution, has been administered, the needle-receiving means is pressed laterally onto the exposed syringe needle.
A problem lies in the design of the transition area between the affixed first foil portion and the needle-receiving means for the syringe needle. This transition area serves for the movable, in particular pivotable, securing of the needle-receiving means on the syringe body. Depending on the angle position of the needle-receiving means relative to the syringe needle, the needle-receiving means is more or less in the way during the administration from the syringe. It proves difficult to design the transition area in such a way that defined angle positions of the protruding needle-receiving means relative to the syringe needle are adopted automatically, without the user having to pivot the needle-receiving means back or having to correct the angle position by hand. Particularly when the needle-receiving means has already been pivoted back and forth several times during unpacking, or for some other reasons, it is not possible, in conventional designs, to ensure that the needle-receiving means always readopts the predefined angle positions, for example near the syringe needle or at a great angle away from the latter. Instead, the transition area is weakened or even damaged by being repeatedly pivoted back and forth.
It would be desirable to provide a label for placing on a syringe body, in which label the orientation or angle position of the needle-receiving means relative to the direction of the syringe needle is reliably recovered automatically, particularly even when the needle-receiving means has been pivoted back and forth several times.